Saturday Ramblings - July 30, 2011

Rain woke me up this morning at 6, it sounded beautiful.  I enjoyed it for 5 minutes and than it was gone.  I will take more if it is given to us.

Nice surprise to open a book and discover money inside it, even if it was only $10.00.  Now what to buy with found money.

So excited that it is Saturday, even if I work until 2.  IT IS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!

Yummy waffles with raspberry sauce and syrup and fresh oranges from our tree for breakfast.  I love having fruit trees and eating their delicious bountiful produce.

Hopefully, the water mark from washing the syrup off my shirt will dry before customers come in.

Hearing "Hey, Soul Sister" on the radio always reminds me of Sandi Berrett because just after she set it as her ringtone last year I called her.

Clear sky driving to work this morning and I can see and enjoy the tall palms and the Fallbrook water tower.  Fallbrook has two water towers, one concrete with the coming graduate year painted on it and one on stilts with checked painting.

Work can either be really busy by myself or normal.  There are 5 preview appointments scheduled so that part is busy, hopefully not too many customers call or come in while I am showing portraits.  But I can handle it and if slow inbetween I am prepared with notes to write, blogs to present, a book to read and a newsletter to put together.

I love seeing Nate and Aimee's wedding picture on our wall at work.

Browsing some blogs, looked up to the window and who do I see but my handsome, sweaty husband coming by for water, a quick peck on the lips and off running again.  I love when my heart skips a beat when I see him at times.  Always good to know I still love him.  ;)

So excited that I started my compost bin.  Love the idea discovered on Jana's board on pinterest.  I had a week's worth of fruit and veggie scraps and who knew that disgusting rotten food good look so beautiful.

Wasting a lot of time on social networking.  But glad my hubbie invited me to google +, now I just need other family members to welcome me into their circle so I can spy on them.

Saw Aimee's food post for Glazed Porkloin, now I know what tomorrow's dinner will be.
Ack..... I need to get moving.

Yardwork, lots and lots to do - but I am eating an elephant - I just need to remember that.  I cleared the weeds off 1 rosebush and he is much happier now.

Power walk in the nature reserve for an hour at dusk with my sweetie.

Date night run to Walmart for milk and a few other items.

Watched a man place 2 baby bottles among the Ensure instead of where it came from.  Choose to see how many other random items where left after someone decided they did not want it.  Almost every shelf in the food department.  Decided I did not want the stocking or restocking job at Walmart.

Late dinner provided by Jack, I devoured my grilled cheese with tomato sandwich.  It is so yummy, grilled to perfection with plenty of melted cheese.

National Cheesecake Day, so we bought a cheesecake slice to share from Jack and took it home.  Topped it with our homemade raspberry sauce.  DELICIOUS.

Finished with the day.  Love ya all.

A day of fun with Nate, Aimee and the pup

For the 4th of July weekend, the Garrett Clan had a family reunion in Duck Creek, Utah.  There was 62 of us at the reunion with only 5 people missing at one point.  After the reunion was over on Monday morning and most everyone was headed home, Craig and I had the blessing of spending the day with Aimee, Nate and their pup Aspen just having fun.  We chose to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument because they had trails you could take a dog on.  It was a beautiful place to visit.



Beautiful Cedar Breaks



I was always stopping to take pictures of the flowers

It had these amazing mountains and cliffs.  We enjoyed the overview and nature.

Aspen is saying "Dad, look at the view instead of your phone"

Nate is being a dog too.

And we even got someone to take a picture that captured all of us.

At least the dog looks good.

Now the rules of the land were that dogs were allowed on paved trails but we wanted to be a bit more adventurous so we started on a dirt trail toward a lake with Aspen.  Luckily no one got upset and Aspen was so good and did not even disturb anything.

Freedom on the trail. (I think there was a sign that said "dogs on lease at all times"

As we got a little further into the trail we discovered SNOW!

What is this white stuff?



Cutest couple

2nd cutest couple (my footwear was not quite prepared for the elements)

Aspen loved jumping and playing in the snow

We decided to backtrack our route because the snow kept getting deeper and deeper and more to travel through.  We saw some interesting trees but never did make it to the lake.  The final descend was too steep and all snow and we were not prepared for that.

Crazy Craig is trying to be this interesting tree.

Blocking the path

or just having fun.

After leaving Cedar Breaks, we choose to head to Panquitch Lake because Darin suggested it as a great fishing spot.  We were hunger and not sure where to eat so we stopped at the first place we saw "Grandma's Hamburgers" or something like that.  We were not sure what to expect but we were delighted with our delicious Mountain Man burgers and fresh fruit shakes.  Now onto the lake.

Aimee and Nate chose to finally use Nate's Christmas present of a 2 man raft and check out the fishing.

So proud of their new boat.  "Babe, this is the best gift ever!"

Aimee did not want to get wet, so Nate pulled the boat through the reeds.

Nate did his part, now Aimee's was to row.

The wind was a bit strong  and kept blowing them down the lake so they choose to just paddle around for a bit.  Aspen was not so sure about being left behind.

Such a sad pup, he whimpered the whole time.

Waiting on shore.



But finally he was given permission to join his mommy and daddy in the lake.

It is a good thing Aspen knows how to swim.  He kept jumping in and swimming to Nate and Aimee.

Aspen really wanted to join them in the boat.



It started to sprinkle and we were not sure if we were going to get a good rain fall so we packed up to go and then it stopped.  Since no fishing had taken place, Aimee and Nate decided to fish from shore.  They had their bait but asked a guy what he was used and he stated "worms".  They tried some stinky bait first but did not get any bites so Nate went scrounging for worms under rocks and found a couple of them. 

A good looking trout

Aimee caught the first fish and they had planned to release it but the poor thing did not recover from the shock.  Aspen retrieved it from drowning.

Aspen was so good on retrieving the fish and carrying it so careful, like he had been trained and not just in his genes.

Craig and I enjoyed a couple of "games" of sudoku and playing with Aspen.

Us and the pup

A little brain action with sudoku.

After finding a 2nd worm it was Nate's turn to catch one.  Now they had at least a dinner's worth of food.  Luckily we had ice and bags for them to put the fish on.

Nate's trout

It was just such a fun day being with them.  What a great memory.

Southern Utah and Grand Canyon Natural Beauty

The Gene Garrett Family Reunion took us to Duck Creek, Utah.  Duck Creek is about 30 miles east of Cedar City, Utah and in my opinion made to provide a place for all the 4 wheelers and snowmobilers to ride.  We played games, ate lots of food and had lots of laughs, all 62 of us. But we also took time to explore. The next few images are some of God's handiwork captured by Craig and my camera. 

What happens to the trees?



Everywhere there was a new and different flower coming up from the ground.  Different colors and different shapes and sizes.  How can there be some many? what creativity, what divine planning. I loved it.



Budding Beauty

 Craig suggested a visit to the Grand Canyon.  We have been there several times before, but this time when we got there he said "how about we take a hike down into the Grand Canyon?"  I was thrilled I had never hiked down into the Canyon before.  We choose a trail to the "Awe Oh Point", it was suggested that it could take 1 to 2 hours round trip.  After about 20 minutes down and reaching the place of oohing and aahing, we knew we could handle a little bit more.  We traveled down another 20 minutes or so until we had probably gone down a mile into the Canyon.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.  Craig said "thanks for indulging me" but little does he know how much it made me happy to be able physically to do this and emotionally see this.  All in all it took us about 2 hours round trip.  It left us with the plan to go to the bottom another time when we are more prepared with food, water, strength and time  - perhaps next spring.




The Grandest Canyon of all

 While driving along the road to the Grand Canyon, we saw these pretty little wildflowers growing along the side.  We wanted a photo of them and stopped quickly, lowed the camera down to the level of the flowers without looking in the view finder.  The flowers look pretty, but check out the background.  A true serendipity discovery with what our little camera captured.



Serendipity

 We explored Crystal Falls, Navajo Lake, Strawberry Lookout Point, Mammoth Cave, Cedar Breaks and The Grand Canyon.  This world was created under divine design by my Heavenly Father, I know it. It is the most amazing beauty ever. 



A reason to believe